


To a few, it'll be grief; To the law, a relief; But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde

by haipollai



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Breaking News: SHIELD is full of dicks, F/M, Long way home, M/M, Steve Rogers is a good man, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-26
Updated: 2013-02-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 17:37:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/700906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haipollai/pseuds/haipollai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You ready?" Steve murmurs.</p><p>Bucky twists around onto his back so Steve's lips hover over his stomach. He slides back up to catch Bucky's mouth in a lazy kiss. "Ready to go be heroes?" Bucky sighs. His fingers curl around the nape of Steve's neck, just holding him close. "Yea, I'm ready."</p>
            </blockquote>





	To a few, it'll be grief; To the law, a relief; But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde

Steve kisses the top of Bucky's spine. He moves down slowly, kissing each vertebrae. Bucky's back is laced with scars, Steve can feel the ridges against his lips with each kiss. He refuses to think about them, to linger and let Bucky think about them. They're apart of him but they're not him. He feels Bucky's back rise with a deep breath and slowly he exhales. Steve can hear it, echoing between them. A long rush of air.

"You ready?" Steve murmurs.

Bucky twists around onto his back so Steve's lips hover over his stomach. He slides back up to catch Bucky's mouth in a lazy kiss. "Ready to go be heroes?" Bucky sighs. His fingers curl around the nape of Steve's neck, just holding him close. "Yea, I'm ready."

-

It took Steve two months after Loki and the Chitauri to become jaded with SHIELD, to see that he would be nothing more then a tool to them. Their goals weren't his. Once again he's a dancing monkey. Except instead of being treated like a child, they see him as an old man. Someone to be coddled, as if the world is really so different. He's tired of it.

So he remembers Peggy's advice and creates a new option.

He takes to carrying his shield with him wherever he goes so no one thinks twice the day he walks out with it. He does missions on his own, talks to the people Fury doesn't want him talking to. Steve is no stranger to the darker corners of the world, he knows how to navigate it.

So he's ready the day he gets on his motorcycle and takes it south, away from SHIELD. He follows his own intel about a thug with long ties all the way back to the Skull and Zola. He goes by Crossbones and Steve leaves him as a heap on the floor. Standing over him for a moment, hands still clenched in fists, he feels free. His responsibility isn't gone, just shifted. He's not a pawn anymore, not just a man in a colorful suit, all the power locked inside him is going to change the world. It's like being back with the Commandos, there were no audiences, no stages to perform on. There is only trying to do the right thing and Steve hopes he just never forgets that that is.

He leaves Crossbones in a heap on the floor for the authorities to find. From Crossbones he hears about the Russian businessman with money in dark places. Steve hefts his shield over his shoulder and continues on, hunts down Lukin to his base of operations in Moscow.

The Winter Soldier at his side is unexpected though.

Lukin expects this to be easy, Steve can see it in his face. But he doesn't expect the Winter Soldier - an assassin reduced to a personal bodyguard - to hesitate. Lukin rushed the wake up procedure. Not enough for the Winter Soldier to remember anything, but it gives Steve his opening, gives him a chance to knock him unconscious so he can deal with Lukin. He doesn't kill, but he knows most people don't recover well from broken leg bones.

The Winter Soldier he takes with him back to his safe house, ties him up and waits for him to wake up.

It is slow and it is long and it is agonizing. But he chips away at the Winter Soldier, slowly at first and faster and faster. Until there's a look in his eyes and Steve knows that once again he's looking at Bucky. 

-

They're a regular Bonnie and Clyde, trapezing around the States, Bucky's arm and their own limited funds makes going abroad difficult, but there's more then enough to keep them busy where they are. They get close to the Avengers sometimes but Captain America is now a wanted man and Steve doesn't know how many times the Avengers can reasonably look away. So they do their best to remain one step ahead, and run as fast as they can when they have to.

-

Clint looks back and forth between them. Steve standing by the table, protective and defensive of the man sitting next to him. James Barnes fidgets with a mug of tea, spinning it around and around, occasionally actually taking a sip of it. The metal of his hand glints dully under harsh fluorescents.

"So let me get this straight. You're running around, beating up the bad guys on your own, leaving them for cops or us to find," Tony says. "Because….? Oh no, SHIELD hurt your feelings?"

Steve purses his lips and Bucky lets go of his tea to hold onto Steve's arm. It seems to actually relax him. "No because SHIELD is no better then most of the bad guys out there. I wasn't doing any good."

"And now you are?" Tony laughs. For a second, Clint thinks Steve might punch him but Bucky's hand tightens.

Steve glances down at him and it feels like they're having a whole conversation. Clint is good at non-verbal clues, but he has no idea what's going on between them.

"Gonna go get a smoke," Bucky finally murmurs. Steve murmurs Bucky's name as he stands, letting Bucky lean on him for support. "Unless you need me in here to keep you from killing him?" Bucky teases, shooting Tony a dark look.

Steve gives a small shake of his head. "No, go but stay close."

"I know how to do this." He leans in and presses his lips to Steve's. It feels like everyone takes a collective breath. The kiss doesn't linger, and Clint has seen much more emotional kisses. This is something else. This is for Clint and Tony, a statement of fact.

"Oh so that's what this is about? So you can secretly fuck your old boyfriend?" Tony snarls. "You run away from your fucking responsibilities as Captain America for some nookie? I want to point-" Whatever he wants them to know is lost when Bucky's fist connects with his face, sending him easily to the floor. Clint knows he should move, jump to Tony's support, but he just stares at him on the floor.

"You know nothing," he snarls and storms out, already pulling out a crushed box of cigarettes from his pocket.

Clint looks back at Steve whose expression is carefully back to neutral. He picks up Bucky's abandoned tea mug and takes a leisurely sip. "You want to lecture me on responsibilities, Tony? Really?"

"I've learned my fucking lesson. Have you?" He carefully tests his jaw, and storms to the kitchen sink to spit out blood.

"I found out, the second night after freeing him from Lukin, the Russians decided to embed metal spurs into the knuckles of his right hand. To try and match the force he had with his left," Steve says, keeping his voice casual. Clint had never been terrified of the man before until this moment. This is the orphan who had to fight for his share and the soldier who faced the worst of humanity. "They're basically permanent brass knuckles.." His eyes meet Tony's. "Are you a bully, Tony? It's not going to convince your idol to come back."

"You're not my idol, especially not anymore. And this vigilante justice isn't helping anyone."

Steve shakes his head. "You should probably leave."

-

Clint abandons the Avengers next and seeks out Steve. Too many close calls, not enough pay off.

-

Her name is Bobbi and she's beautiful and blond. She's too smart for Clint, but Clint's never let that stop him before. He meets her at SHIELD and somehow convinced her to run away with him. The four of them squat in empty buildings, turn the interiors into temporary palaces. They see people on the street wearing t-shirts with the Captain's star on them. Listen to arguments about who is really better or more moral, the mysterious Avengers or the equally mysterious vigilantes.

They read newspapers and follow whatever leads they can get.

They feel like they're making a difference.

-

The current building has a roof that's safe to go out on, so Bucky drags up a lawn chair and straddles Steve on it. He rides him, slow and long, head tossed back. Brown hair sticks to his temples and neck in the summer heat. Steve can't stop staring. He barely remembers to breath.

Afterwards, Bucky stays sprawled on top of him, even though they're sticky with sweat and come. 

"What if we stopped?" Bucky whispers, head tucked under Steve's chin. "Just…left."

Steve sucks in a sharp breath. Bucky had always been the one who threw himself into the fight, getting a thrill out of it Steve never did. Even as boys. He was the one who had never planned past the army, who had enlisted for so many reasons and not all of them noble. "And do what?" He whispers back, staring up at the night sky thick with haze.

"Don't know, live somewhere I guess. We've got scrapped away, working really isn't an issue."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm tired, Steve," he whispers after a minute. Steve rubs his palm over Bucky's shoulders, smoothing out nonexistent knots. "I'm scared. Sometimes, when we're in the middle of a fight….I get lost in it. And what if I can't get out?"

"I'll always be there for you, you know that, right?"

Bucky smiles against his neck, mouthing the skin there lightly until Steve sighs and stretches for him. "I know." He pushes himself up, bracing one arm on the chair by Steve's head and smiles down at him. "Hi."

"Think you can really stop getting into fights?" Steve teases.

Bucky tilts his head back and looks up at the sky. "When I first woke up, and knew who I was, all I wanted to do was hunt down the Red Room and burn it to the ground. I was so angry, it was easy to just go wherever you pointed. Was thinking about it, we took down some pretty bad guys that way."

"Some of the worst." Sin had been one of their first together, the last living testament to the Red Skull, Hydra had splintered torn apart by the remaining leaders arguing with each other and they ran into small cells occasionally. There was the Hand and AIM, Norman Osborn and the one fight with the Abomination that had almost been too much. He runs his fingers over Bucky's arm, up to the scar tissue on his shoulder and back down. He likes the contrast against his skin.

"Why can't we let someone else do the fighting? It's been a long time." He sighs and looks down at Steve. "I don't know, in a few years I'll probably be bored and begging for an excuse."

"Good to see you know yourself so well."

"You helped."

-

Their version of a retirement home is a renovated warehouse in Brooklyn. They're at SHIELD's front door but Natasha comes by their first night there with a smirk and bottle of whiskey. She assures them there won't be any problems. They don't ask any questions but accept the help.

Steve wants to put his shield away completely but Bucky insists he hang it up on the wall by their bed. Bucky says he likes it there, likes the feeling that they're protected at their most vulnerable. 

They watch the news, watch Clint and Bobbi, joined now by some younger kids, a girl with a bow and a boy with a shield, continue their fight.

But Steve's war, he's not sure if it's the one that started when he was a boy or the one that he went to fight, either way it's finally over. They've found their way home.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Bonnie and Clyde movie.  
> And I think this was somehow Lanyon's idea or something. It's her fault. It's always her fault.


End file.
